Apr 25

Apr 25 Elijah Wood Shines in Cryptic Comedic Thriller, Come to Daddy, at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival

Photo Courtesy of FonsPR/Tribeca Film Festival

The directorial debut of acclaimed producer Ant Timpson (ABCs of Death, Housebound, Turbo Kid), recently celebrated its World Premiere of Come to Daddy at the Tribeca Film Festival tonight!

The darkly comedic thriller, featured Elijah Wood and Stephen McHattie. Elijah plays Norval Greenwood, a privileged man-child who arrives at the beautiful and remote coastal cabin of his estranged father only to discover his dad’s shady past that is rushing to catch up with both of them. Los Angeles based DJ, Norval, received an invitation to visit his father, a cynical old man that he knows little to nothing about. The top question in the first 15 minutes is “why.” It’s the typical tale of a father-son duo reuniting after many many years – with a twist. It’s, ironically, a tale of two strangers meeting for the first time. The story line is striking and has an eerie sense of familiarity. Filled with atypical tones of balancing between the lines of being psychologically dysfunctional with a sense of normalcy.

“I was familiar with Toby Harvard’s work from The Greasy Strangler, and Ant had talked about Come to Daddy for a bit, and I’ve known Ant personally for a while, “Wood reveals. When Timpson told Wood he was making a film loosely based on his own experiences, Wood read the script, “and I fell in love with it.”

While Woods, in real life, has a few similarities with his character Norval they are still foreign. “He’s maybe kind of an asshole,” Wood admits, “a little douche. But also human, too.” It’s been a while since Woods has called on his acting career, but his performance in the film is simply spectacular. “From my perspective, I was trying to distill some of Ant’s maybe more crazy ideas for what Norval was supposed to look like, and make him feel a little bit more realistic, whilst also feeling slightly other.”

“The film is a tribute to the type of cinema I loved and watched with my father, growing up in the 1970s,” Timpson explains. “Gritty, character-based thrillers that were literate and laced with pitch-black humor, films driven by tough-guy actors like Gene Hackman, Robert Shaw, and Oliver Reed. Toby created a perfect tale that will immediate draw in viewers, but then playfully keeps switching gears on them. Just when they have a handle on everything, we chicane again.”

Check out the EXCLUSIVE trailer below! In case you missed the initial showcase, don’t worry! The film will be screening at the below times throughout the Tribeca Film Festival:

Friday, 4/26 @ 8:45pm - Regal Cinemas Battery Park 11-4

Saturday, 4/27 @ 9:15pm - Village East Cinema-05

Friday, 5/3 @ 9:45pm - Regal Cinemas Battery Park 11-10